Florence Welch Embodies Fierce

Get your tissues ready. Florence + The Machine's new album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful came out Tuesday, and its lyrics are jam packed with wailing emotion, cries for help, and moments of total breakdown. It's been a few years since Florence + The Machine released an album, but this effort was well worth the wait. The band is known primarily for lead singer Florence Welch's soaring vocals, their ethereal sound, and romantic lyrics. While those elements are still there, this album totally deconstructs them, creating a sound unlike anything we've heard from the band before. It's different, but, ultimately, Florence Welch has skillfully put her fiercely stylish introspection on display — and become my hero in the process.

Of course, any long-time fan of Welch can tell you that she has a tendency to burst into your soul and shake things up. She has a long history of bringing every ounce of passion and energy she has to her live performances, videos, and style choices, and it's magnetic to watch. Half Patti Smith, half crooning Earth-Mother, Welch is an unrestrained tempest with one of the most distinguished voices in modern rock.

If you haven't listened to the new album yet, go into it ready to feel all the feels. In the meantime, here are seven times Florence Welch proved herself as one of the fiercest, rawest, most committed artists of our age.

The "What Kind Of Man" Video

So many emotions are packed into this four-minute video that you literally can't watch the whole thing in one sitting without your heart bursting out your chest like the alien in...well, Alien.

When She Wore This...

Don't let the red hair and soothing harps fool you: Florence Welch is a straight-up goth at heart, and it's amazing.

...And This...

Not everyone can pull off a wig that looks like a red velvet wedding cake, but Welch can.

...And OH MY GOD, This!

I don't know which I like more — the legless leather leotard, or the fairy godmother cape. I'll never know!

When She And Jimmy Fallon Did A Duet Of "Balls In Your Mouth"

It doesn't matter if the song is a ridiculous joke — Welch commits. Even as she sings the ridiculous lyric "Don't go in the ocean, you'll get balls in your mouth," I can't help but tear up a little.

When She Recorded This Moody, Gloomy Version Of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine"

There's something very subdued about this cover — it adds a whole layer of heartache to Gaye's legendary classic.

When She Killed It On Saturday Night Live Performing "Ship To Wreck"

Welch broke her foot diving into the audience at Coachella a few weeks before this performance. Completely unable to move from her stool, Welch barely moved — but she still managed to blow the socks off everyone in the audience.

Images: Giphy (3)